Abstract
THE INTRA-MERCURIAL PLANET QUESTION.—M. Leverrier has made a further communication to the Paris Academy on this subject. With the view to testing the sufficiency of the method employed, to afford a guide for prediction of future transits of such a body over the sun's disk, admitting that the observations in which appreciable motion is recorded really refer to an intra-Mercurial planet, he applies it in the case of Mercury. Transits of Mercury were observed by La Concha at Monte Video, November 5, 1789; by Keiser at Amsterdam, November 9, 1802; by Fisher at Lisbon, May 5, 1832; and by Houzeau at Brussels, May 8, 1845. Taking for the heliocentric longitudes of the body observed, the tabular longitudes of the earth at the epochs of the observations, the following formula for the heliocentric longitude (v) at any time, is obtained—
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Our Astronomical Column . Nature 14, 570–571 (1876). https://doi.org/10.1038/014570d0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/014570d0